IT WAS perhaps the most heart-wrenching moment in a week full of them. Anthony Foster, holding a picture of his daughters Kate and Emma, smiling in their school uniforms at the same time they were being sexually abused by Catholic priest Father Kevin O’Donnell.

“These are my girls. A Catholic priest was raping them when this photo was taken,” he told a media pack from Italy, Spain, the US and Australia outside the Hotel Quirinale in Rome.

“This was my perfect family. We created that, the Catholic Church destroyed it.”

While Mr Foster said progress had been made, the truth remained: “George Pell was the auxiliary bishop in our area looking after the priest who did this to my girls”.

Anthony Foster’s photo of his two daughters Emma and Katie who were raped. Picture: Ella PellegriniSource:Supplied

It’s the simple reality at the heart of the Royal Commission inquiry into what Cardinal Pell knew about offences committed in Ballarat between the 1970s and 1990s. Though previously confined to Australia, the extraordinary conditions of his late-night testimony have seen the story explode onto the international stage as the drama unfolds on the Vatican’s doorstep.

Pell: 'We work within the framework of Christian moral teaching'1:28

Cardinal Pell draws gasps from the gallery as he says 'we work within the framework of Christian moral teaching.'

March 1st 2016

9 months ago

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“He is the highest ranking Vatican official ever to give testimony in a situation like this so that’s news in and of itself,” said Reuters correspondent Philip Pulella, who has been covering the Vatican for decades. But despite calls for Pell’s resignation, it’s unlikely his admission he should have done more to protect children in some cases will have “any impact whatsoever on his standing here in the Vatican.”

“I see these things as two separate things,” he said of the evidence given and Pell’s role as Prefect for the Economy. “I don’t think the Pope is going to change his opinion on Cardinal Pell because of the business here. So I would put my money on him going beyond his 75th birthday.”

The June birthday is a critical point at which the Ballarat-born cardinal will have to tender his resignation, which Pope Francis can choose whether to accept and when. Mr Pulella said given the sprawling job of dragging the medieval institution into the 21st century Pell has been tasked with, it’s unlikely he will be retiring soon.

“My hunch is that he will stay beyond 75 for several reasons,” he said. “Whether [the reform] is going to be completed by Pell or his successor remains to be seen but I don’t think he’s going to accept the resignation on the day of the birthday and I would not be surprised if Cardinal Pell stays for a bit of time after that.”

The work has isolated the Australian in the Italian capital where he is nicknamed “the ranger” due to his independence and bulldog style. His determination has bred animosity from some due to Pell’s outsider status and enthusiasm for reform, at odds with the perception of him at home as an old-school Catholic tied to the ways of the past.

Cardinal George Pell in Rome reads a statement to the media after a private meeting with the clergy victims. Picture: Ella PellegriniSource:Supplied

“He’s a non-Italian in what was and still is to a degree a very Italian environment,” Mr Pulella said. “It’s like any bureaucracy where they’re suspicious of outsiders.”

Pell’s evidence is the last time he will front the Royal Commission who will hear more from Bishop Mulkearns, the man Pell accused of deceiving him by not disclosing that Gerald Ridsdale was accused of sex offences at a critical meeting discussing his move from parish to parish. His testimony given the week before Pell’s from a nursing home was restricted to 90 minutes due to his terminal cancer. The Commission’s findings will then be tabled to government and the date for release is unclear.

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns before the Royal Commission.Source:Supplied

While Pell’s declaration to do more for the Ballarat survivors following private meetings after the hearing is a coup for the group given the church’s lukewarm response to tackling the issue thus far, it’s not enough to show the church is serious about tackling the issue of child sex abuse that has seen the Vatican hauled before the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It’s also led to calls for Pell to be “defrocked” if Francis is to show he’s serious about the issue — a hard point to argue given Pell had arranged for the Pope to have daily briefings on the evidence, but still claimed to have his “full backing”.

Pope Francis has shown support for Cardinal George Pell but his future is still uncertain. Picture: AP Photo/Alessandra TarantinoSource:AP

Though a Pontifical Commission on the issue has been established and Francis has met with victims before, a local Vatican expert said sex abuse remains the “elephant in the room” particularly given Francis’ willingness to push the envelope on issues like climate change and migration“Pope Francis is taking steps to confront sex abuse and has said it is intolerable but victims are demanding action now,” she said.

Mistake to be seen with Ridsdale: Pell2:28

Cardinal George Pell says it was a mistake to walk paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to court in 1993.

March 3rd 2016

9 months ago

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“There is talk but where is the action? This is the elephant in the room if he does not get on top of that.”

Speaking after a private meeting with Cardinal Pell, Ballarat survivor Phil Nagle said they had a positive discussion in which the Cardinal was apprehensive at first but decided to focus on the future rather than the past.

“I actually think he gets it that bit,” he said of the need for the church to commit to financially supporting survivors. Just making sure that he knows in his role we get everything we need available to show the care from the Catholics and the church down that these guys know they’ve got somewhere to go.”

For Anthony and Chrissie Foster, who lost their daughter Emma to an overdose at age 26 and have seen Katie mentally disabled after an alcohol disorder led to a car accident, the words scrawled on paper are clearly too little, too late.

Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa107:05

WARNING - Graphic Content: Investigation of the secret crimes of a charismatic priest who abused over 200 deaf children in a school under his control the film shows the face of evil that lurks behind the smiles and denials of authority figures and institutions who believe that because they stand for good they can do no wrong.